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EnErgy For A nEw TomorrowJEFF DAvis, sEnior sysTEms ProgrAmmEr

AmErADA HEss CorPorATion, HousTon, TX, usA

EnErgy!

The vital force of the modern world -- and the hunt for its

raw materials carries humanity to the furthest reaches of

the globe, the most forbidding depths of the ocean oor.

But before you can nd those energy

sources -- you need to know where to look. And

thats where advanced computer technology is

making a difference -- technology which draws its

own energy from the power of Red Hat Linux.

One of the worlds leading independent energy

companies is on the cutting edge of this sophisticated

technology -- or perhaps we should say the drilling

tip. Three-dimensional geophysical modeling, using

specialized proprietary software, helps specialists

at Amerada Hess Corporation in their never-ending

search for new sources of crude oil -- allowing them to

become familiar with the geology and the geography

of drilling elds before a single bit is sunk. Its an

impressive display of technology in action -- and one

would imagine that it might take an impressive bank of

supercomputers to handle the billions of computations

behind the textured images on the screen.

But at Amerada Hess, those sophisticated applications

are running on ordinary desktop computers.

And those computers are running Red Hat Linux.

To start with, Amerada Hess ordered 32 Dell Precision

WorkStation 410s to power its new Red Hat Linux

Beowulf cluster. These worked so well that the company

soon added another thirty-two units -- along with a Dell

PowerEdge 1300 used as a Red Hat Linux le server.

By late summer 2000, the company was running a

total of 160 dual processor Dell workstation 410s.

Jeff Davis is the Senior Systems Programmer at Amerada

Hess, and hes a committed believer in the power of Red

Hat Linux -- the power to handle the job at hand, and

the power to save an impressive amount of money for

the company. We would have spent approximately a

million dollars a year leasing supercomputing technology

to do the same sort of work, says Davis. But with Red

Hat Linux, the total one-time cost of purchasing the

equipment and setting everything up has come to about

$100,000. Its an inexpensive operating system running on

inexpensive equipment -- and its doing the same work!

Industry: Engineering

Platform: Linux

Hardware: Dell Workstation Beowulf 128-node cluster

Challenge: Expanding use of three-dimensional geophysical modeling technology in connection with thesearch for new crude oil resources requires supercomputing power -- but must be cost effective.

Solution: Instead of leasing supercomputers, Amerada Hess uses an array of desktop computersrunning Red Hat Linux

Benefits: Leasing supercomputers would have cost a million dollars a year -- Amerada Hess getscomparable results with Red Hat Linux for around $100,000 -- saving some $900,000.

FAST FACTS

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And, Red Hat Linux has proven itself time and again

as cost-efcient in operation. To cite just one example

of this, Davis points to Red Hat Linuxs Kick Start

Installation feature. Kick Start has been a big help,

he afrms. Just the installation work alone could be

overwhelming with a system of this size. But with Kick

Start Installation, no problem. Its an easy job! The

system started large and is continually expanding.

We are looking to add 40 more Beowulf

supercomputer nodes this year, bringing us to about

240 systems and 400 processors. says Davis. We

also have replaced an SGI PowerChallenge with 3 Dell

PowerEdge Servers, basically replacing a million dollar

system with about $50,000 worth of Dell servers.

With a product as impressive as Red Hat Linux, word

tends to spread fast through a company, and Amerada

Hess is no exception. Were looking closely at all

aspects of our company for ways in which we can put

Red Hat Linux to use, says Davis, and this is quite a

change from not so long ago. A year ago, some people

in the company might have dismissed the idea of using

Linux -- but now, those same people are standing up

to ask should we be looking into Linux?. I attribute

this totally to the success weve had with Red Hat. The

naysayers in the company are fast becoming converts!

Amerada Hess is an energetic company -- seeking

out the energy sources to keep our world on the go.

And with Red Hat Linux, theyve found an operating

system with the energy they need to move ahead!

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